Ledyard Town Council adopts $55 million budget
Ledyard — The Town Council last week adopted a $55.2 million budget for the coming fiscal year that represents a 3 percent increase.
The spending plan has been forwarded to a public hearing April 11. The Town Council will then have the opportunity to make revisions after the hearing.
Under the adopted budget, the mill rate would go up 8.1 percent — from 30.4 to 32.86 — due to a number of factors, which Finance Committee Chairman Fred Allyn III called a "perfect storm."
Since 2015 was a revaluation year for Ledyard, a 3.4 percent decline in its grand list led to an automatic increase of 0.6 mills.
An extra payroll in Ledyard's biweekly pay schedule over the coming fiscal year also meant that the budget increase on the municipal government side went from 0.3 percent to just over 1 percent.
By far the largest increase comes from a 4.26 percent increase by the Board of Education on school spending, bringing its total budget to $31.8 million next year, which included the addition of four elementary school teachers to accommodate relatively large class sizes.
In past years the finance committee has made reductions to the education budget before forwarding it to a public hearing; however, the Town Council decided to bring the budget forward as proposed, Chairman Linda Davis said.
"I think we were pretty surprised with the increase, considering we passed a $60 million schools project, we were anticipating that the budget request would be not quite as high as it came in," she said. "Regardless, we decided to take some time ... at the public hearing and make a decision after the public hearing."
Councilor Steve Eichelberg called the budget "disappointing" and said large increases in light of the state's financial situation are out of bounds, singling out the Board of Education for its increase.
Board of Education Chair Mimi Peck-Llewellyn defended the education budget as necessary to defending Ledyard's school district from outside competition.
"It's the matter of appreciating the value of the educational system; we want to make sure that Ledyard students stay in Ledyard for quality education," she said in an interview.
The public hearing will take place April 11 at 7 p.m. in the Ledyard High School Auditorium.
The town meeting and referendum were scheduled for May 16 and 17 respectively.
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